Volleyball Looks To Build Off Opening Weekend At Hofstra Invitational

Following a successful opening weekend, the Princeton women's volleyball team will travel to Long Island Friday for the 2013 Hofstra Invitational.

Princeton (2-1) will open competition Friday night against the host Hofstra Pride (4-3) at 7 pm at the Physical Education Center. The Tigers will return to competition Saturday with an 11 am match against Central Michigan (2-4) and a 5 pm match against USC Upstate (0-5).

The Tigers opened their 2013 season last weekend at the George Mason Tournament, where they won their first two matches against both the host Patriots and Coppin State. Playing without its freshman class, which left early for an evening orientation, Princeton dropped the finale to Radford.

The freshman class certainly impressed in its first two matches for Princeton. Outside hitter Cara Mattaliano, who led Princeton past Mason with 17 kills and 16 digs, ranks second in the Ivy League in both kills and points per set. Setter Lauren Miller ranks second in the league with eight assists per set, while Mary Claire Bartlett, Brittany Ptak and Ellie Shannon all contributed in their time on the court.

"I was excited to see how they competed last weekend," head coach Sabrina King said. "There were some early nerves, but they battled through them. This weekend will be another good opportunity to watch them compete and, hopefully, improve."

"We tried a number of different lineups because of the versatility in our lineup," King said. "This weekend will be another opportunity for players to show what their abilities, potentially at multiple positions. Depth should be a strength for us this season, but we're still working on figuring out the best possible lineups."

After this weekend, the pace of the season will pick up. Princeton will make its home debut Tuesday night against Seton Hall, and then it will play one more weekend (Bryant Tournament) prior to the Ivy League opener Sept. 27 against Penn.